Israeli researchers may have discovered a new way to treat AIDS with a drug that dramatically reduces the HIV viral load of affected patients, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday, citing Israeli media.

The new drug, called Gammora, was injected into test tubes containing the blood of ten HIV carriers, and was found to lower the virus count in the samples by as much as 97 percent in eight days. Its active ingredient, a peptide, forces multiple copies of the virus’ DNA to enter an infected cell, rather than only one copy, causing the cell to destroy itself.

Developed by Professors Abraham Loyter and Assaf Friedler of Hebrew University, Gammora is currently being tested at the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.

Currently, the most effective treatment for HIV is a combination of drugs that slow the spread of the infection but don’t eradicate it completely. These drugs have allowed doctors to treat AIDS as a chronic disease, rather than one that kills in a short period of time.

With the newly discovered therapy, however, “we are destroying the cells, so there is no chance that the virus will awaken one day, because there are no cells, there will be no cells that contain the virus,” Loyter said. “The drug enhances certain processes in the body during the spreading of the virus and that enhancement kills certain cells.”

In a related development, the Israeli government announced last week that it will begin distributing free HIV-prevention medication to at-risk population groups. When taken regularly, the drugs have been shown to significantly lower the risk of contracting the disease.

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